Infants and other incontinent individuals wear disposable absorbent articles such as diapers to receive and contain urine and other body exudates. Training pants or pull-on diapers have become popular for use on children able to walk and often who are toilet training. Many disposable pull-on garments use elastic elements secured in an elastically contractible condition in the waist and/or leg openings. Typically, in order to insure full elastic fit about the leg and the waist such as is provided with durable undergarments, the leg openings and waist opening are encircled at least in part with elasticized bands positioned along the periphery of the respective opening.
Disposable absorbent articles having an absorbent main body to cover the crotch region of the wearer and a separate elastic belt defining the waist opening and leg opening are known in the art. Such articles, compared to articles where the outer cover completely covers the entirety of the garment-facing surface of the article, may be advantageous in that they may have better breathability by having less layers of material in certain areas of the articles, and that they may be manufactured economically. On the other hand, in that the number of layers of material used for making the absorbent article may decrease towards the waist opening, the waist ends typically have a translucent appearance of less thickness. Such translucent look and thin feel around the waist ends may deviate from that of a durable undergarment which would usually be thicker at the waist ends than the remainder of the garment. Further, the translucent look and thin feel may be associated with a cheap image or low quality of the article.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a disposable absorbent article to provide an undergarment-like look and feel. There is also a need for providing such an absorbent article without compromise to the performance as an absorbent article, such as fit, wearability, comfort during wear, prevention of sagging, and prevention of leakage. There is further a need for providing such an absorbent article in an economical manner.